Sunday, November 02, 2008

Microsoft Corp., engrossed in multi-million dollar marketing blitz to counter comical ads from rival Apple, Inc., is now using a portion of its budget to fuel guerilla retail tactics near the Mac maker's stores.

7
comments:

Huh. I thought they were pretty good, although, I certainly do not have a fancy business or marketing degree! ;) Although, one of our best friends was just a part of designing one of Microsoft's biggest launches to date, so I am going to ask him about it, too.

you must be among the throngs that waited overnight for their zune:http://www.theonion.com/content/news/thousands_wait_overnight_at...oh, just in case...this is a joke ;-). That is, lots of people agree with my assessment that MSFT's success has come not as a fruit of its consumer marketing prowess, but because of its unceasing ability to leverage its O/S across a variety of platforms, regardless of the user experience.

Nope. No desire to have a zune. Just think it was as silly and inane as most commercials out there. I am sure you have many people in the throngs of business prowess who agree with you. But from the more organic side of life, Microsoft has been a pretty damn good company to a lot of friends during some very tough times right now. And as I hear THEIR stories, I will choose to overlook a commercial that does not live up to a very few's more critical (albeit I admit perhaps more knowledgeable) vantage point.

and the fact that you have no desire to have a zune - and that people do in fact line up for iPhones - goes beyond the non-organic "MBA types" this subtly seems to dismiss. But maybe I'm misreading ;-)

I'm a self-admitting techie geek so when I first heard of these ads I had to search them out on YouTube. My first reaction was huh?? (Actually it was stronger than that but I'm holding myself back for Biz' Blog.

They spent how much on that ad campaign? Originally it was supposed to be an eleven episode campaign, but its been killed after only two, or so they tell us. The "I'm a PC, I'm a Mac" ads are hilarious and quickly to the point. The ad where Gates/Seinfeld move in with the family is around 4 minutes for the uncut one. I'd bet Justin Long and Johnathan Hodgeman don't make 1/10th of what Seinfeld made and their ads are a lot more effective.

The ads have absolutely NOTHING to do with the philanthropy of Bill Gates, which I don't think anyone anywhere could disagree with. But then again, the same could be said about Andrew Carnegie and his libraries, but not so much about US Steel, which built his financial empire.